Change Is Going To Do You Good

Life has many seasons and this past year was what I felt like as a holding season. 2010 and even some of 2009 have been a waiting period. We've not been twiddling our thumbs by any means, but I have a sense that 2011 is going to hold big changes. Change can be scary. However, this time I'm excited about change.

Some change is going to have to come from me though. I'm not really making resolutions this year, but I do want to refocus on some areas of my life. I want to read more, budget better, savor more moments and foster better friendships. Here's to savoring the last moments of 2010 with a little pictorial reflection. My sister-in-law had the great idea to do this.

Dave's Birthday

Valentine's Day

My birthday

Rodeo

Easter
Blue Bell Factory in Brenham

Indiana Jones appearance at our nephew's birthday

Mother's Day

Father's Day

Gavin's Birthday

Fourth of July

San Diego to visit my dear friend

Play time with more dear friends

Labor Day

Halloween

Running of the Turkeys on Thanksgiving

Christmas

Welcome New Year!

Christmas Pondering

This Christmas had to be one of the best that I can remember in the past few years. I think most of that had to do with my attitude and some priorities that were made. All I kept thinking of was from Luke 2:19, "But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart." And that's exactly what I tried to do this year. There were less activities, less baking which added up to more time with my favorite boys and more contentment in my heart.
One of this year's favorite Christmas memories was singing Happy Birthday to baby Jesus. Gavin has a Fisher Price baby Jesus that he plays with in his pretend manger scene. On Christmas Eve, I was telling Gavin that tomorrow is Jesus' birthday and asked if he wanted to practice singing Happy Birthday to him. So I sang, with Gavin mainly bopping his head. When we got to the end of the song, Gavin blew on Jesus' head like it was a candle. Of course, we did this about ten times because Gavin kept saying "more." I have pictures, but alas, our camera in on the fritz, so in the meantime, I'm pondering. Besides, Mary didn't have a camera.

We got some good deals on Christmas presents for Gavin but my favorite item to give him was a felt Muno I made.
For those of you without toddlers, Muno is a character from a popular children's show called Yo Gabba Gabba. It's safe to say Gavin liked it.My husband was excited because I gave him my heart all over again. Okay, so he's always had it.
This year, we tried to teach Gavin a few Christmas tunes. Most of the catchier ones are Frosty and Jingle Bells. One song that Gavin would actually try to sing instead of just bopping his head was "Oh Christmas Tree." We were eating in a Mexican restaurant and out of the blue, Gavin pointed to their Christmas tree and started singing, "Oh tree, oh tree."
Christmas Eve was also a sweet time together. We went to an early Christmas Eve service with my in-laws. Gavin sat with us in the service and did really well. The last several years, D and I have tried to make a unique Christmas Eve dinner and this year we decided on making Pork Tenderloin wrapped in Brioche with a side of couscous. For dessert, we decorated a nine inch gingerbread man that Gavin named Ga Ga.
We truly are blessed to have our family close by and saw both sides on Christmas Day. Below are a few of the picture highlights.
We're enjoying having family time this week. There's lots of playing, napping and silliness going on in the Moore household. This past year was nice, but I for one am looking forward to this new year.

Santa's Wonderland

So last night, we loaded up the car and headed out to College Station to visit Santa's Wonderland. The little man did awesome in the car for the two and a half hour trip.

About fifteen minutes down the road, we realized that we forgot the camera so we turned around for it. Little did we know that we should have just left it behind because once we got back in the car that night to come back home, only ten of our pictures were visible. Something had corrupted our camera card. I kept telling Dave, "We still have the memories." I think I was saying that more for my benefit than his.

So in an effort to capture the memories, let me paint a picture. Santa's Wonderland is set up like an Old West Town but decorated with lights and Christmas wonders galore. People were sitting around campfires, some were roasting marshmallows and hot dogs in a fire pit. The Christmas Story was playing on a big screen TV and Elvis even made an appearance. My favorite part of the evening, was taking the hayride to see all of the lighted scenes. Gavin was completely fascinated. He kept saying "more lights" while we munched on cinnamon and sugar roasted cashews. Towards the end of the hayride, they had the manger scene and then the crucifixion. The lights would show Jesus ascending into heaven and then he was surrounded by angels. After a few seconds the whole scene went dark for the next set of hay riders. The only sound we heard was "uh-oh" by my sweet cheeked boy.

It was a special family outing to which I do have these two pictures:

Christmas Books

Because Christmas is upon us and I've been rushing around like a mad woman getting everything done in order not to be a mad woman (makes perfect sense, right?), my little blog has yet again been neglected. I thought perhaps, I could share the books that we have been reading each night with the wee one.

Gavin has enough Christmas books to maybe read twice over the 25 days leading up to Christmas. Some would only have to be read once. So, each night he picks out two for me and D to read to him. I'm trying to hide those that get read in order to read a different one each night.

Tonight just so happens to be two musical books. The first was the traditional Frosty the Snowman.


The book is written strictly by the words of the song. Gavin especially likes the "thumpety, thump, thump" part, complete with words and head bop.

The other book we read was Silent Night.

I knew there were other verses, but I had no idea just how many. In this book, Gavin pushes the star and it plays the tune. The poor little star is struggling at this point and doesn't completely finish the song before it dies down.

We're are loving this bedtime routine. After Christmas, I'll pack up all of the Christmas books for next year so they will be fresh and new. Hopefully, I'll get to post a few more of the books we read in the coming weeks.